DESIGN CRIT 009
MINIMAL DESIGN!
Minimalism is a fantastic design tool for helping you hone in one what matters most. And it doesn’t mean you have to make sparse stuff!
MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO
TRANSCRIPT
Well hello my name is Carey and today we’re gonna take a piece of work, figure out what’s essential, and strip it down to exactly that.
Today we’re looking at a quick image made by Stephen Zippe for the Visual Design Lab’s 3rd challenge, which involves making some handmade marks and then incorporating them into a series of designs. Stephen only tried a few different mediums, like marker, and what looks to be a cup stain, but then did something really smart and when that cup stain dried, he got WAY up in its face and got this, probably with a quality digital camera. That’s a really good lookin element, so he used it in a couple of different ways to throw this together, which admittedly is more of an experiment than a design, but experiments are great. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but you figure something out either way.
Like, I wouldn’t say this works, but something I do notice about it is that even with relatively few elements, parts of it already kind of remind me of… mountains. It’s pretty simple, but maybe here we’ve got the sun, some snow blowing off the peaks, maybe a rocky surface. It’s a kind of abstract or almost minimalistic portrayal of mountains, which is cool. Although some aspects of it still feel super arbitrary, as you’d expect when you’re experimenting and kind of wingin it. So I thought, well what if we strip out some of the more arbitrary stuff and just focus on a simple portrayal of snow-covered mountains. Something cold, windy… Y’know, what are some ways that we can start with what’s here to evoke that idea, that feeling?
Today we’re looking at a quick image made by Stephen Zippe for the Visual Design Lab’s 3rd challenge, which involves making some handmade marks and then incorporating them into a series of designs. Stephen only tried a few different mediums, like marker, and what looks to be a cup stain, but then did something really smart and when that cup stain dried, he got WAY up in its face and got this, probably with a quality digital camera. That’s a really good lookin element, so he used it in a couple of different ways to throw this together, which admittedly is more of an experiment than a design, but experiments are great. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but you figure something out either way.
Like, I wouldn’t say this works, but something I do notice about it is that even with relatively few elements, parts of it already kind of remind me of… mountains. It’s pretty simple, but maybe here we’ve got the sun, some snow blowing off the peaks, maybe a rocky surface. It’s a kind of abstract or almost minimalistic portrayal of mountains, which is cool. Although some aspects of it still feel super arbitrary, as you’d expect when you’re experimenting and kind of wingin it. So I thought, well what if we strip out some of the more arbitrary stuff and just focus on a simple portrayal of snow-covered mountains. Something cold, windy… Y’know, what are some ways that we can start with what’s here to evoke that idea, that feeling?
And can we do that well with just a few elements? Having presented a lot of my own work that has a ton of detail, and even recently shown how you can add richness and depth to your own imagery through layers of detail, I get questions like: how then do you make compelling, good-looking work when the projects you’re involved in have mandates like “keep it clean and simple”. And in all honesty, it can be hard to know exactly what that means to a client. But usually what they’re looking for is something minimal, and in reality, Minimalism is really all about reducing things to just what matters most. And that means it’s extremely difficult to do when you don’t know what matters most. Maybe because the goal of the project isn’t defined very well, so you’re not really sure what you’re trying to do, and so you’re not sure what’s gonna help you do it. Or maybe the project is really complicated and you just don’t understand the essence of it yet, so you still have some work to do to really understand the goal so you can better judge which things in the frame are helping you achieve that goal.
To answer the question, that idea of “keeping it clean and simple”, doesn’t necessarily mean that your design has to lack detail, it means that the details that you leave in are there for a reason. And that’s really helpful to keep in mind, because the minimalist principle is a really powerful strategy, just like some of the other strategies we’ve talked about. And you can use it if it helps you. Like we talked about in this one, building the image up and then seeing what happens when you reduce it by pulling some things out… that’s a great way to test what’s working and what’s not. You’ll know if you lose something that was important, and then you can figure out why it’s important, and maybe how you can use it even better.
When you think of Minimalism, maybe you think of the art movement from the middle of last century, or some stuff that’s sitting in a so-called modern art gallery. A lot of that is what we’d call “Abstract Minimalism” and we see that influencing plenty of what people like to make even now. It’s kind of everywhere, if you know what you’re lookin at. Or maybe you think of minimalist living and the kind of interior design that conjures up. Whichever it is, it’s really an effort by artists or designers to strip out what is non-essential, which implies that they had to go through the process of deciding what is essential. What’s important.
To answer the question, that idea of “keeping it clean and simple”, doesn’t necessarily mean that your design has to lack detail, it means that the details that you leave in are there for a reason. And that’s really helpful to keep in mind, because the minimalist principle is a really powerful strategy, just like some of the other strategies we’ve talked about. And you can use it if it helps you. Like we talked about in this one, building the image up and then seeing what happens when you reduce it by pulling some things out… that’s a great way to test what’s working and what’s not. You’ll know if you lose something that was important, and then you can figure out why it’s important, and maybe how you can use it even better.
When you think of Minimalism, maybe you think of the art movement from the middle of last century, or some stuff that’s sitting in a so-called modern art gallery. A lot of that is what we’d call “Abstract Minimalism” and we see that influencing plenty of what people like to make even now. It’s kind of everywhere, if you know what you’re lookin at. Or maybe you think of minimalist living and the kind of interior design that conjures up. Whichever it is, it’s really an effort by artists or designers to strip out what is non-essential, which implies that they had to go through the process of deciding what is essential. What’s important.
From a design perspective, it’s hard to know whether this is all that was essential here, cuz it’s hard to know what this is trying to do, and so whether this is the bare minimum to get that done. But here you can kind of decide whether this is all this room needs because you can at least ask the question: “what’s the point of this room?” What’s the room for? Is the point really just to sit in a stiff chair while staring out the window at some dirt? And only in the daytime cuz it’s gonna be dark in here at night! Yeah, that’s hopefully not the point, so by most standards this might be too minimal and maybe it needs a lamp and a rug and a table for books. Maybe a more comfortable chair. Maybe two. If it was meant to be a comfortable space to read books with a friend, that might be all that’s needed to give people the idea that that’s what you’re meant to do in this room.
So then the questions are about the details that are gonna matter. What kind of comfortable chair. Is it leather? Fabric? What kind of fabric? Is it new or old? Expensive or affordable? When you have very little there, those small details become much more important, because they’re all that’s there to give people an indication of what’s going on. What they should take out of this. How it makes them feel, and whether they like it or not.
So again, minimal doesn’t necessarily mean it lacks details, it means that the detail that’s there is only there if it really matters. It’s there because it’s super important to what the whole thing means, and if you take it out, or change it, what people get out of the whole thing changes. If it doesn’t really change anything, it probably wasn’t all that important. If it does, y’know, probably worth considering why. So taking stuff out and testing it against that principle can be a great way to figure out what is important, and ultimately getting to the heart of what your imagery is trying to do!
So then the questions are about the details that are gonna matter. What kind of comfortable chair. Is it leather? Fabric? What kind of fabric? Is it new or old? Expensive or affordable? When you have very little there, those small details become much more important, because they’re all that’s there to give people an indication of what’s going on. What they should take out of this. How it makes them feel, and whether they like it or not.
So again, minimal doesn’t necessarily mean it lacks details, it means that the detail that’s there is only there if it really matters. It’s there because it’s super important to what the whole thing means, and if you take it out, or change it, what people get out of the whole thing changes. If it doesn’t really change anything, it probably wasn’t all that important. If it does, y’know, probably worth considering why. So taking stuff out and testing it against that principle can be a great way to figure out what is important, and ultimately getting to the heart of what your imagery is trying to do!
But that can be hard, because again, a huge part of design is struggling to understand the goal, or what you’re trying to accomplish. So in the early stages of a project, it’s hard to judge whether certain elements are helping you do that or not. At this point, I know I’m trying to make a cold, windy mountain scene. That’s sort of vague. But I also know I’m trying to use some of these handmade elements, and they’re kind of inky or watercolor-y. So I could aim for a cold, windy, watercolor mountain scene, which is a little more specific. Not a ton, but that’s ok, we can build our understanding as we go. In a lot of professional projects, you’re working with vague goals, so you have to invent the more interesting and compelling aspects of them, and keep evolving your understanding of them as you work. So maybe cold, windy, watercolor mountains is all I know at this point, and that’s fine.
In this case, I’m not necessarily aiming for something incredibly sparse or stripped down, but I’m using that minimalist strategy like a tool to make decisions about what I do and don’t want here. How much is too much or too little of any particular thing to get the job done. Like, having just two straight wedges here wasn’t quite enough to look like a snowy mountainside slope, so I added just a little of this rocky texture to part of the bottom wedge. I started with what I thought was gonna be the right amount of the rocky texture, and kept taking more and more of it out because most of it wasn’t necessary. There’s not a whole lot left, but it works. It’s just a hint, it’s hardly anything, and a lot less than I thought I’d need, but it still works because as a viewer, you just don’t need a lot to figure out what it is. Same with this watercolor edge. It’s just enough to make this vector circle feel like watercolor. And more than that is just screaming about it.
Oftentimes, it takes some fussing to figure out how much is enough but not too much of any particular element. But that fussing and asking how much of each detail is necessary really helps you pay more attention to each of those little details, so you’re not absent-mindedly slapping things together.
In this case, I’m not necessarily aiming for something incredibly sparse or stripped down, but I’m using that minimalist strategy like a tool to make decisions about what I do and don’t want here. How much is too much or too little of any particular thing to get the job done. Like, having just two straight wedges here wasn’t quite enough to look like a snowy mountainside slope, so I added just a little of this rocky texture to part of the bottom wedge. I started with what I thought was gonna be the right amount of the rocky texture, and kept taking more and more of it out because most of it wasn’t necessary. There’s not a whole lot left, but it works. It’s just a hint, it’s hardly anything, and a lot less than I thought I’d need, but it still works because as a viewer, you just don’t need a lot to figure out what it is. Same with this watercolor edge. It’s just enough to make this vector circle feel like watercolor. And more than that is just screaming about it.
Oftentimes, it takes some fussing to figure out how much is enough but not too much of any particular element. But that fussing and asking how much of each detail is necessary really helps you pay more attention to each of those little details, so you’re not absent-mindedly slapping things together.
And then over time, all of that attention gives you lots of opportunities to slowly figure out what matters. And again, it doesn’t necessarily mean that what you end up with has to be minimalist. It can, if that’s what you want. Or you can end up building out really rich imagery. Either way, it’s really just a strategy to help you focus on crafting your details in a really deliberate way. It gets you to ask questions about each little detail and to pay more attention to what you’re doing and what you’re actually putting in the frame. The added bonus for me is that in asking questions like what’s essential to making these look like snowy mountain ridges, I find that it helps me mull over what the whole image is about. And that may or may not be how it works for you, but for example, I’m sitting here asking myself what I do or don’t need to make it feel cold, and as I’m doing that I’m thinking about what it’s like traversing a steep icy ridge alone with freezing winds whipping around you, in essentially whiteout conditions. It’s cold for sure, but it’s also dangerous, y’know? There’s an element of danger here. And that’s kind of what’s interesting about this. There’s danger of a very particular kind. So thinking about these details has led me to a small realization, and now I’m thinking “Ok, I’d like to convey that sense of danger a little better, so how do I get it to be more about danger. Or to make it feel just a little more dangerous?”
Well my first instinct is to have something like a bobcat, or a snow leopard, stalking this guy. That’s a pretty literal way to show danger. But that’s ok, sometimes you throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. So I start trying that out with a wolf image. And that immediately seems like way too much. It’s overkill. I just want an impression of danger, not something as literal as a specific wolf. So I’m looking at how much of the wolf I can strip out. The background obviously, but also the fur, the legs, the body… I think it might be enough with just the eyes and the teeth. And I don’t even need all of that. It doesn’t need to be a picture of a wolf’s face, i just need the threatening parts. The parts that signify threat, amongst other things. And even having reduced it to just those signifiers, I can still visually knock them back into the snow. And I can work in that watercolor-y treatment a bit. I want it looming, and I want it metaphorical, not literal. I don’t want a mythically large wolf hovering over this guy, I want the impression of threat. And the minimalist strategy works really well here, because throwing a wolf in here could easily be reeeeeally cheesy. You know what I’m talking about. I’m not entirely convinced that this ISN’T cheesy, but I’m trying. 😀
And I know basically what I’m aiming for with this element: I want it to add the idea of danger lurking in this cold, watercolor environment. I know that’s what it needs to accomplish, so I can judge whether this is enough to do that, or if it’s too much. Not enough would mean you just don’t see it, or you don’t feel it. Too much would mean it probably looks like a 10 story wolf poking down out of the clouds. But I want just what’s essential to convey threat, and I think this is just about it. Sometimes these things are a little subjective, so let me know if you agree or disagree. This is art, after all.
Well my first instinct is to have something like a bobcat, or a snow leopard, stalking this guy. That’s a pretty literal way to show danger. But that’s ok, sometimes you throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. So I start trying that out with a wolf image. And that immediately seems like way too much. It’s overkill. I just want an impression of danger, not something as literal as a specific wolf. So I’m looking at how much of the wolf I can strip out. The background obviously, but also the fur, the legs, the body… I think it might be enough with just the eyes and the teeth. And I don’t even need all of that. It doesn’t need to be a picture of a wolf’s face, i just need the threatening parts. The parts that signify threat, amongst other things. And even having reduced it to just those signifiers, I can still visually knock them back into the snow. And I can work in that watercolor-y treatment a bit. I want it looming, and I want it metaphorical, not literal. I don’t want a mythically large wolf hovering over this guy, I want the impression of threat. And the minimalist strategy works really well here, because throwing a wolf in here could easily be reeeeeally cheesy. You know what I’m talking about. I’m not entirely convinced that this ISN’T cheesy, but I’m trying. 😀
And I know basically what I’m aiming for with this element: I want it to add the idea of danger lurking in this cold, watercolor environment. I know that’s what it needs to accomplish, so I can judge whether this is enough to do that, or if it’s too much. Not enough would mean you just don’t see it, or you don’t feel it. Too much would mean it probably looks like a 10 story wolf poking down out of the clouds. But I want just what’s essential to convey threat, and I think this is just about it. Sometimes these things are a little subjective, so let me know if you agree or disagree. This is art, after all.
We could go all kinds of different directions with this, and with a real brief that had more specific goals, we’d have to. But I actually kinda like where it is. It’s cold, it has a sense of place and a bit of a narrative about someone maybe lost in the wild, and then it has that twist of being a kind of watercolor impression of all of that. That’s pretty cool! I think it’s done!
So thank you to Stephen for providing the foundations of this. This was one of the earlier challenges in the lab, so he only had simple shapes and handmade marks to work with, but this, for example, is a fantastic element to play with, and I like the idea of using it for a snowy mountain. That paper texture is great.
So this is a simple one. Minimalism is a simple tool, if you want to use it. And I totally recommend it! Know what your goal is, and find what’s essential to meeting that goal by pulling stuff out until you can’t strip out any more. Find which aspects, which signifiers of each element are critical to what you need out of that element. Leave those, and dump the rest. Maybe it’s a color, maybe it’s a texture, maybe it’s the shape of fangs! Alright, that’s it, have fun! See you soon!
So thank you to Stephen for providing the foundations of this. This was one of the earlier challenges in the lab, so he only had simple shapes and handmade marks to work with, but this, for example, is a fantastic element to play with, and I like the idea of using it for a snowy mountain. That paper texture is great.
So this is a simple one. Minimalism is a simple tool, if you want to use it. And I totally recommend it! Know what your goal is, and find what’s essential to meeting that goal by pulling stuff out until you can’t strip out any more. Find which aspects, which signifiers of each element are critical to what you need out of that element. Leave those, and dump the rest. Maybe it’s a color, maybe it’s a texture, maybe it’s the shape of fangs! Alright, that’s it, have fun! See you soon!